Edward R. Ames, D.D., a native of Ames Township, Athens Co., Ohio, born May 20, 1806, was a son of Judge Sylvanus Ames. His early education was plain and practical. A natural taste for reading was fostered by a local library to which he had free access, and when twenty years of age he entered the Ohio University at Athens.
There he remained many years, supporting himself mainly by teaching. In 1828 the Ohio Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church met at Chillicothe, and he attended its meetings. Bishop Roberts, the presiding officer, was so impressed with the young man's appearance that he invited him to accompany him to the Illinois Conference at Madison, ILL. He there made the acquaintance of several prominent Methodist clergymen, and opend a school at Lebanon, ILL., which was the germ of McKendree College.
In August, 1830, entered the itinerant ministry, and was licensed to preach by the Rev. Peter Cartwright. He was sent to the Shoal Creek Circuit, which covered an almost unlimited territory, and when the Indiana Conference was organized, in 1832, he went with the new Conference, and was ordained a Deacon by Bishop Soule. In 1834, he was ordanied an Elder by Bishop Roberts, and was employed in several fields of labor, including two years spent in St. Louis, Mo., till 1840. He was that year appointed a delegate to the General Conference in Baltimore, and was by that body elected Corresponding Secretary of the Missionary Society for the South and West.
He was the first Chaplain ever elected by an Indian Council, having served the Choctaw General Council in that capacity in 1842. In 1848 he was elected President of the Asbury University, Indiana, but declined the honor. In the General Conference in 1852, he was elected Bishop together with Bishops Scott and Simpson; and he was the first Methodist who ever visited the Pacific Coast. When the question of the seperation of the Methodists came up in 1844, he opposed the division, and afterward did all he could to foster a fraternal spirit. When the ecclesiastical property of the Methodist Epicopal Church South was confiscated for the time being, he was commissioned by President Lincoln and Secretry Stanton to take charge of it.
This was a most delicate duty, and in its performance he visited New Orleans and other Southern Cities, organizing societies and appointing white and colored preachers. During the twenty-seven years in which Bishop Ames was in the episcopacy, his whole public life was marked by a strict adherence to the rules and discipline of Methodism, and even when the most difficult points came up for settlement he displayed a far-seeing judgement and quickness of apprehension, which enabled him to grapple successfully with them.
Although grave and dignified in manner, there was a magnetism about him which attracted, and his preaching was always thoroughly enjoyed. He could scarcely be styled an orator, and yet his quiet reasoning, apt aphorisms, pertinent illustrations and earnestness, impressed more than mere declamation. He died at Baltimore, Md., April 25, 1879. He had been twice married, and left a son and two daughters.--Appleton's Annual, 1879.
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